Chapter 75
Chapter 75
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: How to Survive in Fusion Punk
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Blood erupted in steady spurts.
The monster, having plunged into the water like a belly flop with its entire body, sank with a splash far away.
But only for a moment.
It exploded upward with ferocious momentum.
Its torn mouth asked that, and Jin's forehead veins bulged.
"Who's dying?!"
Right after, he kicked off the floor hard with his toes and charged.
He closed the distance in an instant and unleashed a kick.
No skill name or anything.
Just swinging his leg with all his might, as if saying, go ahead and die.
The monster's body, struck by it, sliced through the water and slid away.
Chasing after it, red sparks flickered from Jin's body.
He had decided from the start to go all out, risking his life.
He was on borrowed time anyway.
No room to hold back or take it easy.
And so, Jin caught up to the monster hurtling at tremendous speed and stomped down with perfect aim.
Boom!!
The crushed monster's head sank into the blood.
Jin didn't stop.
He grabbed the nape of the deeply embedded monster and yanked it up forcibly.
Then, toward the nearby wall—thud thud!
He started slamming its face repeatedly, like stamping a seal.
"Absorb! Blood! Cells! Don't! Listen!"
With each word, he bashed it forcibly, splattering tomato-like blood across the entire wall.
But only for a moment.
Laughter leaked from the mangled face.
"...?"
The next instant, sensing an ominous shift in the air without a sound, Jin slowly tilted his head upward.
What he saw was a massive blood-red tsunami too vast to take in at a glance.
Thousands, millions of pale red bubbles boiled up, crashing down with the shadow engulfing the ground.
---!!
With a soul-shaking roar, Jin was swallowed by the blood.
His body spun wildly in the powerful vortex.
Shiver—! Blood refluxing through nose and mouth dyed his lungs crimson.
At some point, the surroundings filled with torn red blood cells.
They burst into mad laughter.
Strange visions flashed in his mind simultaneously.
Mountains piled with corpses.
A chilling malice unified in death.
This unholy offering to an profane existence:
"We beseech you, grant us your blood."
Even those who knelt desperately in prayer became part of the mountain, when a boy collapsed to his knees beneath the river of blood.
He was one meant for sacrifice but the sole survivor by chance.
Hah, hah.
The gasping child peered at his reflection in the red liquid.
A deathly pale face, far too gaunt.
His trembling hand wiped across it, then, resigned, he gulped dryly and cupped the blood in his hollowed palm.
Cautiously raising both hands high, he let it flow into his mouth.
This was the first human to accept true blood.
The scene shifted.
Zaneden, reborn through true blood, now commanded others as kin.
Thus began the bloodline from a single vampire, tail to tail.
The true blood clan was born.
Among them, the twelve vampires directly baptized by Zaneden received the title of 'Lord'.
A sinister chorus shook his soul to its core, and as Jin's consciousness sank into deep darkness—
Fwoosh!
A faint flame flickered brightly in his chest.
A warmth that gently illuminated his heart.
Then, a new scene appeared before his eyes.
After long ages, before Zaneden, now called the King of Blood, stood a man.
Red hair, slouched posture.
A face saying everything in the world was a hassle, but eyes that could incinerate all creation...
The torn mouths cried out in unison.
As if this wasn't the scene they wanted to show.
But by then, the two were already stepping toward each other.
The battle that followed was in a realm far beyond Jin's comprehension.
But one thing was clear.
At the end of the grueling fight, the victor was the red-haired man.
His battered face spat blood, hands clutching Zaneden's head and heart.
Jin snapped his eyes open amid the shocked voices.
His body was still being swept away, but somehow.
This time, he easily regained his balance.
"So damn noisy."
Before him, countless red faces scowled, smiles gone.
All demanding who he was, what his identity was—like they hadn't heard a word?
Jin sighed.
Use Self-Flame, it's Zahard.
Use White Flame, it's Solad.
Not just people saw the world that way.
Even these blood cells were full of shit.
Jin chuckled.
Absurdity turned to amusement.
"Does it matter what power I use?"
The true blood bellowed back.
[······!!]
It felt like a vicious curse,
Or just a dog's bark.
"Is that so? I don't care."
Jin's smile deepened.
Self-Flame, embers—mere tools he wielded.
What mattered was always him.
He had never entrusted his ego to secret magic.
Not even now, knowing Solad's ancestor incinerated the first vampire.
Just shrugged it off as no big deal.
So Jin was always Jin.
No matter what others said, holding to his self-image.
That was how he endured this alien world.
The moment he reflected on that resolve,
A line crossing the world appeared before him.
"Ooh."
Bright-faced, Jin hopped over it.
Glanced around briefly.
Then looked up at the clear blue sky and smiled.
"What? Nothing much."
At that, the rotten blood sea halted abruptly.
No, it wasn't a sea.
Just cursed blood racing through a vein.
Merely about 200ml.
Confirming from his elevated view, Jin let out a hollow laugh.
His body, now truly in control, began devouring the impurities within.
[No! No! No!!!]
Fragments of true blood screamed.
His body, dreaming of eternal evolution, began its feast.
"Kuh!"
A stifled groan escaped Maximo's lips.
The aftermath of a vampire's kick to his chest sent him tumbling across the floor.
The impact made his shock-absorbing vest pointless.
Dazed, hundreds of flying beasts swarmed him.
Chit chit chit chit!!
The hated cries snapped him alert.
Reflexively reaching into his coat, Maximo pulled a grenade and hurled it with all his strength.
"Get—lost!"
With his booming voice, the grenade sliced through the air and flashed in the bat swarm's midst.
Flashbang.
In games, just a screen whitener.
Reality differed.
Its blast hit 170-180 decibels—louder than a jet takeoff.
Enough to rattle the semicircular canals.
Bats with keen hearing plummeting en masse? Predictable.
Of course, Maximo didn't see it.
He'd turned his back to the flash upon throwing.
Reee—
Tinnitus pierced his ears.
A stray thought unrelated to the crisis crossed his mind.
How'd it come to this?
Came for an artifact, found none—ancient beast revived instead.
A vampire lord, no less.
Shitty luck.
Shouldn't have picked up Drandrei's call!
But regrets came too late.
Shaking it off, Maximo whipped his head around.
What he saw: someone floating midair, legs flailing.
"...Kek!"
Gasping raggedly, it was a chameleon beastman.
His hand, escaped from blood mist, clutched his throat—face twisted in agony.
"Damn!"
Maximo instantly raised his rifle and fired.
The shot shattered the pale arm extending from the mist.
As the beastman collapsed, still clawing at his throat—
Kaboom!!
The suddenly swollen hand exploded.
Splat— Feeling blood spray his face, Maximo rushed over.
The beastman bore horrific wounds.
"Hah, hah."
His tenacious vitality kept him breathing, but it was hopeless. Too much blood on the floor.
"Sa... save..."
Biting his lip at the plea, Maximo reached for narcotic painkillers—too late.
Numerous arms from the mist dragged the fallen beastman in.
A gruesome tearing sound echoed, flesh and bone crushed alive, absorbed as a puddle into the fog.
"Crazy bastard!"
Maximo slung his rifle from its strap and backpedaled.
Thinking: This its best shot? Starved for a millennium, supposedly weakened.
Even eating Underheart goons shouldn't make it this strong.
Meanwhile, another ally fell.
A full-body cyborg merc.
He'd fought valiantly with tireless flesh, but mist seeped into implants, coagulating layer by layer.
Movements slowed, then his head snapped off with his spine—crack.
A furious roar erupted.
"You filthy cur!"
Followed by a clap! booming like thunder.
Damir, exploding the mist away.
His eyes blazed with vengeance.
"Dare touch my kingdom! Everything I built over 30 years!"
The old mage's rage, from his escaped haven, burned fierce.
His shrunken body paled to his prime, but his aggression defied time.
Relentless explosion magic scored solid hits on the vampire.
Worth the rank 2 title.
All that king nonsense aside.
He alone could stand against the vampire here.
Actually, one more could.
But he'd lost consciousness at the fight's start.
"Natasha! Where's Jin?!"
Maximo shouted as Natasha blasted bats with her shotgun.
"Not yet!"
"This is bad. For real!"
Maximo's face fell naturally.
She'd seemed off since the search, but snapping now?
He'd seen Jin fight—such a waste.
Watching united survivors die pointlessly hurt extra because of that.
Jin here, and it'd be a real fight.
Then—
Boom boom boom boom boom!!!!
Chain dust explosions swept the underground,
Shockwave clearing the blood mist.
Bomb-crazy geezer did it?
Maximo peered at the epicenter, hopeful.
His lips drooped immediately.
The vampire's flesh sizzled, but its arm pierced the old man's gut.
Memorizing the pained face, it spoke.
"...Had you not aged, it might've been dangerous. I acknowledge you qualify as kin."
Like with Jin, it dissolved to bats, arm still embedded.
Damir collapsed, gnashing teeth.
"Kin? Nonsense! I'm a king! A king!"
Pride wounded worse than body.
As he raged, Underheart's swordsman swung at the bats.
Natasha's double and Maximo joined—one of her splits.
Three against one.
Seemed balanced at first, but regrouped mist enveloped darkly.
Balance shattered like illusion.
Swordsman's blade snapped, rolling.
Natasha's clone throat-ripped.
Maximo lost a chunk of shoulder.
"...Nothing's ever easy, huh?"
Natasha, guarding unconscious Jin, rose last.
Racking her shotgun to advance—
"Puha. So full."
Voice over her shoulder turned her head slowly.
The approaching vampire, sinister smile, did the same.
"Finally reborn..."
Sensing wrongness?
His welcoming face for his first kin froze cold as fangs bared.
"...What did you do to the true blood?"
Jin didn't answer long.
Just stared blankly at empty air, blinking.
Inadvertently testing its patience, he finally spoke.
"Swallowed it?"
Before Jin's eyes floated a long-missing status window.